Date: July 2, 2019
Source: University of California - Berkeley
Spotted
owl populations are in decline all along the West Coast, and as climate change
increases the risk of large and destructive wildfires in the region, these
iconic animals face the real threat of losing even more of their forest
habitat.
Rather
than attempting to preserve the owl's remaining habitat exactly as is, wildfire
management -- through prescribed burning and restoration thinning -- could help
save the species, argues a new paper by fire ecologists and wildlife biologists
and appearing today (July 2 ) in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment.
The paper
compares the plight of the owl with that of another iconic threatened species,
the red-cockaded woodpecker, which has made significant comebacks in recent
years -- thanks, in part, to active forest management in the Southern pine
forests that the woodpecker calls home. Though the habitat needs of the two
birds are different, both occupy forests that once harbored frequent blazes
before fire suppression became the norm.
"In
the South, the Endangered Species Act has been used as a vehicle to empower
forest restoration through prescribed burning and restoration thinning, and the
outcome for the red-cockaded woodpecker has been positive and enduring,"
said Scott Stephens, a professor of environmental science, policy and
management at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author on the
study.
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